UT Classics

05/06/2026

Kudos to the 2025-2026 Officers of Eta Sigma Phi! Thank you, Nate, Hannah, Annie, Rachel, Tatum, and Ursula for all that you have done for the department this year! We can not overstate how important you have been to the health and happiness of our department.

04/22/2026

Hey all!

The last Classics Play Reading Club meeting will be this Friday, 4/24. We'll meet at 4pm in Dr. Gurd's lab on the basement level of WAG.

This time we're reading Hippolytos, by Lane Anthony Flores

If you would like to read a part, please reach out and let me know! I'm still looking for a few readers. But either way, please come join us as we close out this school year with a new take on a very old story!

See you Friday,
Lane

04/17/2026

Our own Sean Gurd was featured in COLA's Life and Letters magazine for his outstanding research.

FeaturesLet the Ancients Play By Kaulie Watson March 4, 2026 facebook twitter email The ancient world was like ours: loud. People crowded into city centers, haggling in marketplaces and chiding their children. Armies in bronze armor clashed on battlefields. Traveling performers sang or chanted the w...

04/17/2026

04/17/2026

Congratulations our very own, Joann Gulizio! Joann has been awarded the College of Liberal Arts’ Waggener Centennial Teaching Fellowship for the 2025-2026 academic year. This fellowship is presented annually in the College of Liberal Arts to faculty who have exemplified outstanding teaching in foreign language instruction. This acknowledgement is richly deserved! Joann has been a key contributor to the department's teaching and a fan favorite among classics students.

04/13/2026

Congratulations to our amazing undergraduate students Nate Heffron and Hannah Arulanandam! Both students made the undergraduate list for the 2026 Dean's Distinguished Graduates Honorable Mention recipients. Well done!

The College instituted this award in 1980 to recognize graduating Liberal Arts students who have distinguished themselves in the areas of scholarship, leadership, and service to the College and University community. It is the highest award the College offers and truly reflective of the remarkable caliber of our graduates. We will honor the students at an upcoming event and will further honor the undergraduate DDG recipients at the College of Liberal Arts spring commencement ceremony on Thursday, May 7.

04/13/2026

Classics Play Reading Club reading of Hippolytos by Lane Anthony Flores (oui, c'est moi!) is going to move to April 24.

Sorry for the late notice! See you in a few weeks!

-Lane

04/08/2026

Dear all,

I’m excited to share the news that the Lives and Literacy in Ancient Egypt exhibition is opening this weekend at the Harry Ransom Center and will run from April 11th to August 2nd. As many of you know, the exhibit is co-sponsored by ISAC and the Department of Religious Studies and focuses in part on manuscripts of religious texts, including P52, a fragment of the Gospel of John widely considered one of the earliest surviving manuscripts of the New Testament; a fragment of the Gospel of Mary; a third-century fragment of the Odyssey; and an early copy of Greek Deuteronomy. The exhibition is a collaboration with the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England, and grows out of Dr. Geoff Smith’s annual summer papyrology seminars with graduate students from RS, Classics, and MES. Dr. Smith and Dr. Katherine Taronas have co-organized this exhibition and co-authored the catalogue with Dr. Aaron Pratt of the HRC and Dr. Jeremy Penner of the Rylands Library. RS grads Rikki Liu and Jordan Swanson also contributed to the analysis and write-up of one of the objects on display.

There are still tickets available (free of cost) for a panel discussion with the four organizers this Thursday 4/9 evening, and the panel will also be live-streamed on YouTube here.

04/08/2026

Bronwen Wickkiser (Hunter College, CUNY)

λίθοι ὑγιεῖς: A medical vocabulary of architecture

Friday, April 17 at 4pm, WAG 116 (Classics Lounge)

We hope to see many of you there!

Matteo, Nebo & Greg

Abstract

This talk investigates the phrase “healthy stones” (λίθοι ὑγιεῖς) as it occurs in inscribed building accounts of the late classical and Hellenistic periods in Attica, Delos, and Boeotia. Most instances of its use are from sanctuary contexts, and we will begin our investigation on the Acropolis of Athens. Some questions we ​will consider are: What did “healthy” mean more broadly to the Greeks, and what might it have meant when applied specifically to building blocks and other objects within sanctuaries? Are there any patterns to the chronological and geographic range of the occurrence of the locution “healthy stones”? Furthermore, did this phrase occur in association with particular cults or gods?